Jay will be starting Kindergarten in August 2018. I wish I could say I was excited like I was for my other two children but to tell you the truth I'm terrified. Jay does not walk yet nor does he crawl. He butt scoots and army crawls. He is pulling himself to the standing position and will walk for short distances if you hold one of his hands. He has been in his special education preschool class the past three years and I love his teacher and aides. I know he is well taken care of and safe. The bus picks him up and 8:00AM and he returns home at 11:30AM. He then receives 1:1 teaching therapy with his habilitation provider from 11:30 to 2:30. This has been our routine for 3 years. He has made such good progress. Jay is so delayed even for Down syndrome because he spent the first three years of his life in the hospital on his back. Every time he would make some progress he was going in for another surgery which would set him back. So Jay is still trying to learn basic living skills yet alone his ABC's. He has a small vocabulary and will repeat some words and sign but he is nowhere near a typical 5 year old. I would say Jay functions at the capacity of a 12 month old.
The school district in Arizona is moving towards integration with typical kids and moving away from self contained classes for special education. His preschool just became integrated this year with six typical kids and 6 special needs kids. Jay has made great progress and I do see the benefit of him being around typical kids. I just think kindergarten is a whole other beast. I fear Jay will spend most of his day sitting in his wheelchair at the back of the classroom not understanding any of the curriculum. He still needs to work on holding a pencil, scissors, crayons. I fear learning the alphabet, sounds, numbers, writing his name is going to be over his head. How would a 12 month old really do in a kindergarten class? Will it really benefit him to be in this setting?
Today I met with the school psychologist and his preschool teacher and signed the permission slip for them to do a psychological evaluation on Jay. We will meet back on January 24th to discuss the results and find out their recommendation on a school for Jay to attend for kindergarten. I need to fill out 14 pages of questions so my input will be part of their testing and decision. I feel much sleep will be lost over this kindergarten decision and transition. I just don't know if he will benefit as much from kindergarten as he does from preschool and 1:1 habilitation. Maybe I'm just not giving him the credit he deserves or treating him like I do my other children. I just fear he will be left behind and regress in a typical classroom. I guess we will see what the testing and results say and go from there. I just wish I could be excited about this new adventure but instead I'm terrified.